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Learning to Use a Metronome Effectively Part 1: Nervous Tick? by Matt Baamonde

If you are a half capable guitarist you’ve probably heard the words, “Play something really fast,” by your friends, and it’s usually meant as a challenge to test your chops. But what does playing something fast really mean? Is someone clocking the amount of time it takes you to play x amount of notes from point A to point B? And even if you’re moving at the speed of sound is that really a valuable skill as a guitarist, or more importantly, as a musician?

If you’ve ever listened to, or seen guitarists, that fall under the progressive rock, neoclassical metal, shred metal, or fusion categories such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Andy Timmons, John Petrucci, Al Di Meola, Jason Becker, Michael Angelo Batio, Eric Johnston, Steve Morse, Michael Fath, Paul Gilbert, Buckethead and many others, you’ll know what your “friends” are challenging you to do, and its not easy.

So try this as a comeback if you’re ever in that scenario: “What do you mean by fast? Triplet scales at over 200 beats per minute ? Or sextuplets at 100 bpm? What about sweep picked 16ths at 180, or 8ths at 360, or even quarter notes at 720? What about right hand tapped 8ths with left hand triplet arpeggios? How about tremolo picked groups of 9?”

Now of course you’ll have to be able to perform these and be able to back this up with examples. But the point you’d be trying to get across is that everything has rhythmic subdivisions and that there are different contexts and techniques that enable speed. Being able to play something relatively fast with a groove or beat to it will have much more of an effect than the fastest blind lick in the world.

Being able to do those examples consistently, under the pressure of the eyes and ears of other people, is a skill that has to be acquired with daunting amounts of practice. And ask 9 out of 10 professional guitarists and they’ll probably agree that the quickest way to play fast properly is to practice with a metronome.

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